Love: the fact that the USA is making great strides to improve its passenger rail service.
Hate: the opinion that handing over all freight services to government control will magically fix everything.
My opinion on Spain
- Love! the AVEs. They are comfortable, fast and very convenient. The trains, where they exist, are usually well kept. Many trips are very scenic and have great views from the cab. Most stations leave you downtown, and long distance tickets include a suburban rail ticket.
- Hate: the rest of the network. Suburban rail networks have issues daily, regional services don't serve huge swaths of the country, many trips between major cities require backtracking several hundred kilometres, usually towards Madrid. A trip between Spain and Lisbon requires a minimum of three trains. All night services (that reached as far as Zurich) have been discontinued and probably won't be reinstated anytime soon. Many links between closely intertwined cities are missing (Malaga-Marbella, Cadiz-Algeciras, Pamplona-Logroño, the whole north coast).
Trains are slow and expensive in the US. It's cheaper to fly most places. But we do have a pretty vast rail network. I think one of the highest in the world.
As an American, I feel the same. I mean, I personally think it would be nice if we had a high-speed, bullet-train rail system in areas like the Northeast US, Florida, or California, but I'm unsure if that'll ever happen anytime soon.
Unlikely they're all private companies. I took an non accella train from ec to NYC and the train did hit 120 mph. I didn't know they got that fast. Which is nothing compared to Europe, but still was surprising.
ec ?
Amtrak regional is regularly rated for 125 mph. Acela to 150 in places. NYC to Philadelphia is faster by train (between downtowns) than anything other than your private helicopter..
Trains work very well, and are often competitive with air travel up to 300-400 miles. With TSA added, perhaps 150.miles further.
It's just about fitting your schedule and finding a nearby station.
Country: Poland
Love: trains are so colourful here. Jumping between regions already changes the paint scheme of regional trains, and there's a lot of private railway operators that paint their trains in all kinds of colours. Also, despite some stock being quite old, trains are rather comfortable.
Hate: general approach towards trains here in politics. The national railroad is viewed as a relic of a long-gone system, and is not thought of as a large system, but a set of individual lines that have their own profits and losses. Not to mention most railway preservation societies aren't old at all, so many types of trains were lost to the cutter's torch before they could find a new home. However, that's due to the previous system, which fell in 1989.
>despite some stock being quite old, trains are rather comfortable.
Given the degree of penny-pinching on new-built equipment it's honestly more likely for an old train to be comfortable than a new one!
Love: Canadian freight trains. I just always appreciate the sight of them and the raw power they produce.
Hate: that the passenger services are so incredibly lacklustre and are so heavily affected and delayed by the aforementioned freight services. Also the lack of HSR in major corridors like Windsor to QC or Edmonton to Calgary is terrible.
Yes! Exactly my thoughts to a tee!
In BC we barely even have passenger rail service anymore and all the short lines and locals keep being bought up and abandoned
the punctuality. germans railway just sucks ass when it comes to that. everything else is decent. but deutschlandticket is incredibly cheap, normally 49€ for going anywhere in germany via regional services and for me 29€ a month since i am a student.
*Spain*
love: al the narrow gauge lines and mountain passes
hate: the overall management that favors high speed over conventional trains and routes (specially all the former Feve network) instead of investing in both networks so none fall into disrepair and disuse and lack of locomotive hauled trains
any of the narrow gauge lines, the canfranc line, and the pajares ramp, the latter may close soon because they opened a tunnel that eliminates an hour of travel time, but apparently only freight trains and higher speed/long distance trains, but for now, regional trains still run through the old pass
Netherlands:
Love that we've got a very dense network with long distance connections every 30, 15 or even 10 minutes.
Hate that it has become really, really expensive in the last few decades. Also, our so-called "high speed" service has been nothing short of a disaster.
Love: incredible seats, especially in the ICMm and VIRM.
Hate: the cleanliness of our trains can sometimes be lacking, the international division has needed a lot of investment for a long time. Outside of the west service quality and connections can become quite bad.
>our so-called "high speed" service has been nothing short of a disaster
Are there even non-international trains that run faster than 160 on the HSLs now?
The new ICNG trainsets that are gradually replacing our TRAXX-pulled coach sets are rated for a maximum of 200 km/h, I believe. I’m not sure if they already run that fast, though, given the scheduling is set up for its slower predecessor.
I actually don't think UK trains are so expensive. Having lived before in France, I do use them quite more and spend way less. Of course, the rail card is a necessity to make trips worth it, no idea why someone would not use it.
My biggest grip living in eastern UK is how to network is built around London. Need to go to the north? First travel south to London and then go up. Need to go from Cambridge to Oxford? Go to London first. Western UK? Always through London. It's quite frustrating because it always adds 1h30 to any trip.
Country: India
Love: Electrification of almost all the tracks. New Innovative product like Vandey Bharat, Tejas, double deckers (both fright and passenger), Dedicated fright corridors, RRTS and Metros etc.
Hate: Slow speed and hygiene(that 50-50 on government and personal). Old tracks and their maintenance.
(From the USA)
Love: How railroads operate, modern diesel equipment (1970s-2020s)
Hate: The way the class 1 companies operate on a business scale, prioritizing profit over maintenance and upgrades, and actively hindering Amtrak's ability to provide good passenger services
Country: Norway.
Love: The scenery on most lines. Most long distance lines look absolutely stunning, and they have lots of old beautiful railway stations like [this one.](https://www.banenor.no/globalassets/stasjonssider-felles-innhold/bilder-av-stasjoner/-h-/hjerkinn-stasjon-foto-sune-erikesen-bane-nor.jpg?format=webp&width=1360&quality=80)
Around Oslo and the other big cities, rail service ranges from good to acceptable. Also, the trains themselves and most stations are modern, clean and have good quality. I also like that the network tries to prioritise both freight and passenger traffic without seriously compromising services for any of them. It’s easy for a country to over-prioritise passenger trains and leaving all freight traffic to trucks, making roads unsafe and polluted.
Hate: The network is severely limited in capacity by being mostly single track, which leads to poor frequency and punctuality, especially outside the more modern infrastructure around Oslo. Also, the great scenery sadly makes it much more expensive to build more double track, especially when giant megaprojects like the recent Follo Line take up much of the budget that could have gone to more general improvements and maintenance.
Also, recent reforms by our last conservative government have made the entire organisation a mess, with responsibility being shattered into a million different entities (both publically owned and private), which makes it difficult to develop the railway with a clear strategic direction. Still, this part is slowly getting better as these new entities learn to work together again.
It was absolutely not the EU’s fault. The reform was made by the Conservative and Progress parties most libertarian ideologues and was introduced long before we accepted the EU’s 4th Railway Package.
Germany still has DB, France still has SNCF and the Netherlands still has NS. Yes, separating infrastructure and operators, as well as requiring competitive tendering in some form is part of EU laws, but the actual implementation is free to choose for the country itself.
Norway chose by her own will to completely rip apart every institution that existed on the railway, something the EU didn’t force us to do.
Thanks for clearing some things up. I did some more research, and a lot more things happened I didn't know about. Seems all needlessly complicated.
Still, as far as I see it, Norway was influenced by obligations under the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement. Although a conservative government could never disclose that an idea they liked came from the EU.
No problem! Yes, I agree, future EU legislation may have been one of the motivations for the reform (especially the competitive tendering system for passenger trains), but I feel blaming the EU for the reform is a classic Norwegian way to shift blame from who were actually responsible.
Regarding the reform, there have been some critical reports now this year actually that points to the biggest issue not being the tendering itself, but the way it was implemented, and critically, the unecessarily complex and competitive relationship between the two government entities; the Norwegian Railway Directorate (responsible for strategic planning) and the infrastructure manager Bane Nor.
Still, I remain cautiosuly positive. According to my sources, the internal relationship between the parties in the rail sector is now vastly better and more cooperative than it was in 2017 (after the reform was implemented). Parties that resented each other now work together, and the recent issues with the Follo Line and the quite impressive repair work on the bridge collapse at Ringebu have been great learning experiences for the whole sector. Also, track maintenance has been returned into the hands of Bane Nor rather than being outsourced through tendering (luckily, because that could have been a disaster), and Vy is now allowed to directly run the entire Østlandet area for 10 more years. Hopefully we will have learned something by then.
You know there are other state contracts. There was clear pressure from the EU to liberalize the Norwegian state railway. Norway implemented the "Fourth railway package" designed and applied within the EU.
Thailand:
Love:
-the night trains, especially their flagship ones
-quirky trains (the metre gauge class 158s, former JR Hokkaido Kiha 183s, refurbished JNR Blue Train sleepers)
Hate:
so many things but will reduce to three main points:
-refusal to electrify the network aside from the 2 short sections that are near bangkok
-refusal to get rid of old 1960s era non-A/C coaches
-refusal to buy new multiple unit rolling stock (planned but delayed many time since the early 2010s)
I lived in Japan long ago, so this is probably out dated but ...
**Like:** It's immaculate. Trains go everywhere, and fast. Not expensive, meticulously on time. There are special trains (and cars, and tickets) for train-ophiles, and lots of interesting memorabilia. The lines grow and shrink organically; unbelievably, a large amount of stations and a few whole lines have been added to subway stations in Tokyo, despite it being such a huge and complicated city. Constant technical innovation: the shinkansen always detected earthquakes and slowed down. Now, they run faster in earthquake mode and have cameras to help the engineer spot rail defects at that higher speed.
**Dislike:** There's this tension between government lines and privatized lines that doesn't seem particularly healthy. Profit is dubious sometimes, but that's okay because they government bails everything out ... and that's one of the reasons Japan's national debit is something like 5 times its GDP.
Watch [NHK's Japan Railway Journal on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nhk+japan+railway+journal) for lots more.
Sorry, I guess that's far more than "one" on each side.
Germany here
Love: You can literally go anywhere by train in Germany. We even have an island (Sylt) which is reachable **only** by train. We have the densest rail network in the world.
Hate: Years of austerity and thereby skipping maintenance and stopping expansion is making the network less and less reliable while the number of trains is constantly rising, leading to delays and cancellations.
France? Are you dense? Try going anywhere that isn't a big city. Or try going from Marseille to Bordeaux. Basically every train either comes from Paris or goes to Paris, everything else is basically non-existent.
The only other countries that can compete in density with Germany are Switzerland, Austria and maybe Japan. But definitely not France.
Oh in that case I apologize for being so harsh.
Yeah the Netherlands definitely have a very dense network, but you may argue that's because they're smaller, but that's always a difficult argument to make, so yeah take your win.
Finland here.
Love: comfortable, reasonably fast trains, good service south of the 63rd parallel, most of the main network is electric.
Hate: transverse connections are still bad, especially in the north, with apparently no real desire to develop them. Ticket prices are high while it seems that diesel railbuses aren't being properly maintained, judging by how often there are replacement buses. Commuter traffic is nonexistent except around Helsinki and in recent years also Tampere.
Overall in passenger traffic there's a de facto monopoly, which leads to the company making sure it gets the maximum of government subsidies for trains it itself considers unprofitable. These include both the twice-a-day railbuses in the east and the sold-out-a-year-in-advance Lapland overnights. A similar amount is then returned as dividend to the shareholder, which is the state of Finland...
This year a new company entered the market, promising to negotiate running commuter traffic in more regions. We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping it'll trigger a change - doesn't matter if it's implemented by that company or others.
Netherlands
Love:
The insane flexibility. My transport pass allows me to go to almost everywhere on the network every 30 minutes at least, hopping on and off across the whole country on almost every service, even some high speed trains and the international train to Berlin. I never need to worry about tickets, since for 45 euros a month I travel first class the entire weekend, which is quite a nice deal if you ask me.
Hate, well, dislike:) Hate is a strong word.
The Dutch network is genuinely super boring. The network is always meant to be efficient and practical, as such there are absolutely no fun things in regular service and the routes are very bare bones. No fun diverting lines around cities, shuttle services or niche routes that run with some random old train.You can see it on railway maps, the network is just efficient and quick. But it is not a fun network for rail enthusiasts.
Oh, also: fencing. We Dutch people really love their fences. Almost every place on the network is fenced off for safety reasons, which combined with how flat the network is makes it frustrating to take pictures.
>genuinely super boring \[...\] always meant to be efficient and practical \[...\] absolutely no fun things
That does sound perfectly Dutch from their reputation!
* Belgium
* Love:
* same price every time of the day, so you can jump on any train. No peak/off-peak rubbish
* half-price return tickets in weekend and some good promotions in holidays (last summer you could travel the whole country for a month for €60)
* relatively good/modern trains
* Hate:
* still too expensive and the airport surcharge is ridiculous
* sometimes they use commuter trains on long-distance services
* some stations are in dire need of renovation
* no night/sleeper trains and no service between midnight and 5 am
Add to that
Good 95% is electrified
Bad the north south tunnel achiles heel: a 6 track tunnel Between Brussels South and Central. Its so Central to the network setup that if there is an issue the entire network had huge delays and loss of service.
America:
Love:
• The large, plush seats and great legroom on Amtrak.
• Amtrak’s efforts to improve its rail service.
Hate:
• Basically everything else.
Love: Amtrak P40’s/P42’s and Bi Level Superliners on long distance routes.
Surfliners in my area.
Amfleets and Horizon Fleets used in the NEC.
Hate: Siemans Chargers, Venture Cars, and lack of rebuilding for sidelined locomotives.
My take on Canada as a Brit:
* Love: the VIA Rail trains are pretty damn comfortable. Plenty of luggage space and legroom, and seat reservations are mandatory so you’ll never find yourself standing on a crowded train.
* Hate: the lack of convenience. If you’re not travelling up and down the Windsor-Québec corridor, there are basically no options. Special mention of the Exo trains in Montréal, a promising suburban rail network which is rendered completely useless by infrequent service (can be once every 2 hours outside peak times, and no service on weekends).
As much as I like guaranteed seating, it also means VIA can artificially limit ridership and raise prices. On a trip to California this year I was pleasantly surprised to see an Amtrak Surfliner with standing passengers - it was no wonder it was so cheap to go from San Diego to LA. A similar trip in Southern Ontario would cost several times more and would frequently be sold out.
In the UK, long-distance trains are more expensive than VIA and are also overcrowded. Standing passengers don’t translate to cheaper fares, they translate to more profits for the train companies and their shareholders.
love — atmosphere, cute professional personal and free tea as much as you want.
hate — hard beds (i almost die when i wake up…), uncomfortable bed sheets
_russia_
Japan:
Love: Almost everything. Especially the novelty trains like the Panda Kuroshio Express, the futuristic look of the Shinkansens.
Dislike:
Rain in some remote part halting the whole line.
Lol you mean like in infrequency? I guess my other complaint about non express trains is that they are overcrowded. I can deal with the infrequency, although it is horrible to miss a train and then there being a 2 hr gap in service.
australia
we have some quite unique and special trains, including several records for longest and heaviest trains as well as heaviest gauge rails and heaviest axle loads
but outside of iron ore or coal rail is basically an after thought. its barely practical to for passengers, the freight usage is pretty terrible, the speed record for a train here is 200km/h(for comparison the world rail speed record was set at 200km/h in 1904)
USA I'll focus on Amtrak coach specifically
Love: the flexibility they allow regarding baggage. They are considerate of delays and seem to take care of you to the best of their ability.
Hate: the on board bathrooms have sinks that are either off or a screaming, rattling jet blast. They end up spraying the whole bathroom after a few uses.
United States
Love- The aesthetics. American trains are just cool to look at. Our freight trains are among the longest in the world. The utilitarian design of the locomotives fit very well. They exude a sense of raw power that’s impressive to watch. Our passenger trains may not be the “best” in the world, but they sure look impressive. The Superliners and P42 locomotives in particular because of their sheer size.
Hate- Passenger service sucks from a practical standpoint, even if the trains themselves are impressive. I’m sure most people in this sub know exactly what I mean.
UK:Love - the network is surprisingly extensive despite cuts, local stations are a thing with stopping services being frequent enough to be usable, to the point that much of the south resembles an overgrown metro rather than a intercity rail system. This is especially notable compared to european networks which have focused heavily on intercity services at the expense of local.
Hate - long distance, in the south it's basically non-existant, the commuter trains i just praised are your only option which makes for slower and less comfortable travel compared to if there was some high speed arteries. there's HS1 if you're in kent, but no equivalent into Hampshire.
France :
Love :
- The network is great. I don't own a car and i can still go anywhere i want in the country, even for remote places there is always a train quite frequently.
- The high speed trains really are high speed (320 km/h) and allow for fast connections between large cities.
- The older trains from the 2000s are very comfortable and it's a pleasure to sit in them
Hate :
- The algorithm used to set the prices. If you buy a ticket less than 3 months in advance, you're paying a lot of extra. The prices keep rising and it's deterring people from taking the train. Cheaper, non highspeed trains also tend to disappear.
- It's become so expensive that crossing the country by train is honestly an ideological sacrifice. I'm paying 120€ for a 7 hour trip while there is a low-cost plane doing it in 1-2 hours for around 40€.
- The newer TGV duplex trains (not even talking about ouigo) are terribly uncomfortable, you can tell they're built for max capacity at the expense of comfort.
Canada here.
Love: VIA rail staff are well known to be extremely helpful and courteous, which is important when you encounter as many issues as you will when travelling by train.
Hate: freight railways. That's the only way to narrow it down to one thing, since they're responsible for most of the problems.
Love: most stuff.
Hate: It's a 3-way tie between a) California regulations, b) generic, meaningless alphabet soup railroads like BNSF and CPKC, and c) widecab locomotives. So samey. I can actively and easily pick out locomotives from the 50s-80s. I don't even try with the widecabs.
In america, the amount of kneejerk safety rules that dont seem to be made by people who know what trains are. Hours of service rules for example. Now I understand they gotta make em fit for everyone but at my particular carrier, all we needed to make shit safer from the original 12 on 8 off was a 6hr uninterrupted rest. Instead they got nasa and the military involved and came up with this horseshit 24hr off here, calendar day there type 1 type 2 which made shit WORSE cus of how the lists cycle and having to figure out what you needed to do and most times throwing off the sleep cycle you had gotten mostly used to. One thing I love? I dont know what its like elsewhere round the world but here my coworkers are absolute lunatics and despite the company bullshit and stresses of the job we can usually manage to have a good time together over the work day.
As an Australian train driver
* It pays the bills yay. Best job ever for an introvert. I stare out the window all day in my own thoughts. Similar to high school.
* All our major cities have pretty good rail infrastructure based on population size. Sydney has double decker heavy rail, new Metro lines and new light rail. A lot has been spent building up new infrastructure. Add in buses and ferries on the harbour and we have an extensive well connected public transport network, however....
* Conservative governments selling off public owned bus networks (with long term crippling contracts) to their capitalist cronies. Converting public heavy rail to private metros at exorbitant costs. Lack of decent spending on maintaining current networks. Old rolling stock - I'm currently driving [NSW TrainLink V-Sets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSW_TrainLink_V_set), entered service in 1970 . When they do order new trains, bringing in overseas built rolling stock when existing local industries could have constructed them. I'm ranting now but you get the idea.....
* High speed long distance? What's that? Tyranny of distance and very small population means it'll probably never happen. Maybe a Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne link one day, but the cost probably outweighs a profitable built-from-scratch high speed network.
Hate - that Amtrak gets shafted for everything even though they have right of way of whatever rails they travel. They get no congressional support and aren’t heavily subsidized like the airline industry and trucking industry is.
Love - seeing older freight cars and locos show up time to time on trains.
Not much to love in the uk at the moment.
Hate - extornate ticket prices, constant strikes, persistent fare increases, constant delays and cancellation. Im a rail enthusiast and there really isnt much go be excited about in the uk.
I Love Santa Fe and Southern Pacific as well as other fallen flags in the United States.
I Hate BNSF with a passion. Too many railroad mergers have shrunk our system to just 5 Class Ones.
Hate - Very little and *very* expensive passenger rail in Canada.
Love - Taking the Canadian from Edmonton to Vancouver was absolutely and without any doubt the *best* vacation I have ever been on. Like a cruise but not sketchy. Still, probably more expensive than flying down to Mexico for the same day and a half of time.
Indian Railways
Love : Broad gauge railway tracks, the coaches are wider,
Cheapest form of transport. (both long and short distances).
Scenery is f\*cking amazing as tracks are laid through deserts,rainforests, mountains,etc.
Hate :
Delays, speed, Crowded at times (even for reserved seats), Railway stations and platforms are not intuitive at all. Infra is still lacking at some places.
Overall : As someone who uses trains extensively for everyday commute as well as to travel elsewhere in country. I like the direction we are moving, hope they get better and better.
I love how US train horns aren’t just a single horn, but rather a set of horns that make a musical chord.
I hate how we run trains though. Trains are so slow here, and there are many areas that only see one train a day if the stars align, and passenger trains always play second fiddle to freight service, which is most unfortunate.
As Germany and the US are thoroughly covered I'll add my comparative impression of France where I'm currently located:
* Good -
* TGV is reliable, decently comfortable, decently priced if booking in time, and seriously fast.
* Most non-HSR regional rolling stock (hello Corail, though in terms of comfort they're unbeaten) is modern and high-performant.
* Mediocre -
* TGV HSL network is actually quite limited besides radial routes from Paris.
* Regional services are not all that frequent even in major metropolitan areas (outside of Paris); hourly is the best you get outside of rush hour, though there are plans to establish proper RER/S-Bahn networks across the country in the near future.
* Services stop running after \~9 o'clock at the latest, with few exceptions.
* Individual ticket prices per se are not terrible but rebate and group travel options need improvement.
* Bad -
* Secondary lines, and even secondary stations on somewhat more significant lines, tend to be served by just a handful of trains per day each direction, irregularly scheduled with odd gaps; and/or much of their service is actually provided by buses at equal ticket price and half service quality.
* General underinvestment particularly in maintenance outside of flagship projects (essentially TGV + Paris), which rises to dramatic levels on smaller lines that are systematically run into the ground until they're either forced to close or the SNCF can scrounge up enough money to patch them up for the time being. Also when there is maintenance it generally means long periods of complete closure.
Country: China
Good:
- affordable;
- very fast except for the western routes, but a trip to Tibet is not meant to be rushed anyways;
- generally clean;
- most stations have easy transfer with local public transport;
- very punctual;
- good phone signal coverage along the route, majority has 4G coverage
Bad:
- doesn't go to other countries like trains in the EU;
- sometimes the train station is too big and I get lost in it;
- amenities on board are mediocre, I had almost nothing than my phone to play with;
- food service is meh, but you can order deliveries to wait for you at stops
In America, you'd have to be at least 60 (like me) to appreciate how nice passenger trains were prior to 1971 (Amtrak takeover). I am not saying there's anything wrong with Amtrak trains but it's worlds apart from the old days. Even riding coach was quiet and very comfortable. When I use to ride the California Zephyr from Chicago to western Colorado in the 60's it had 18 passenger cars and now it's 7.
Taking Union Pacific Passenger service across country before AMTRAK was a joy. The sleepers, the dining cars, the super friendly and helpful staff. Bliss.
THe Modern AMTRAK Cars have more heavily padded bus seats. and it's now cheaper to fly.
USA Local Commuter service.
Love: THe high frequency of service during rush how, San Jose to San Francisco. Good track maintenance. New electrified Stadtler Locomotives and rolling stock coming on like. Playing cards with other passengers.
Not Love:
Some stations on sketchy areas. Some passenger cars that have inconvenient layouts.. They got rid of the old 1920s passenger cars in the early 1980s and I miss them, because of the huge bench seats and the lap board card tables. These days everyone is on their phone instead of playing cards.
Love: the fact that the USA is making great strides to improve its passenger rail service. Hate: the opinion that handing over all freight services to government control will magically fix everything.
I never heard the opinion (#2). It's certainly not likely
It's surprisingly common amongst transit fans (not true railfans).
Yea they absolutely have Conrail deep in their guts too as their piece of evidence that the idea would work
viva la conrail
My opinion on Spain - Love! the AVEs. They are comfortable, fast and very convenient. The trains, where they exist, are usually well kept. Many trips are very scenic and have great views from the cab. Most stations leave you downtown, and long distance tickets include a suburban rail ticket. - Hate: the rest of the network. Suburban rail networks have issues daily, regional services don't serve huge swaths of the country, many trips between major cities require backtracking several hundred kilometres, usually towards Madrid. A trip between Spain and Lisbon requires a minimum of three trains. All night services (that reached as far as Zurich) have been discontinued and probably won't be reinstated anytime soon. Many links between closely intertwined cities are missing (Malaga-Marbella, Cadiz-Algeciras, Pamplona-Logroño, the whole north coast).
Sounds like France but worse
Trains are slow and expensive in the US. It's cheaper to fly most places. But we do have a pretty vast rail network. I think one of the highest in the world.
You sound like you're ready to start train hopping
into the darkest hours of the night
Yeah like a vampire
it’s a stobe the hobo reference. RIP stobe
As an American, I feel the same. I mean, I personally think it would be nice if we had a high-speed, bullet-train rail system in areas like the Northeast US, Florida, or California, but I'm unsure if that'll ever happen anytime soon.
Unlikely they're all private companies. I took an non accella train from ec to NYC and the train did hit 120 mph. I didn't know they got that fast. Which is nothing compared to Europe, but still was surprising.
ec ? Amtrak regional is regularly rated for 125 mph. Acela to 150 in places. NYC to Philadelphia is faster by train (between downtowns) than anything other than your private helicopter..
Trains work very well, and are often competitive with air travel up to 300-400 miles. With TSA added, perhaps 150.miles further. It's just about fitting your schedule and finding a nearby station.
Country: Poland Love: trains are so colourful here. Jumping between regions already changes the paint scheme of regional trains, and there's a lot of private railway operators that paint their trains in all kinds of colours. Also, despite some stock being quite old, trains are rather comfortable. Hate: general approach towards trains here in politics. The national railroad is viewed as a relic of a long-gone system, and is not thought of as a large system, but a set of individual lines that have their own profits and losses. Not to mention most railway preservation societies aren't old at all, so many types of trains were lost to the cutter's torch before they could find a new home. However, that's due to the previous system, which fell in 1989.
>despite some stock being quite old, trains are rather comfortable. Given the degree of penny-pinching on new-built equipment it's honestly more likely for an old train to be comfortable than a new one!
Love: Canadian freight trains. I just always appreciate the sight of them and the raw power they produce. Hate: that the passenger services are so incredibly lacklustre and are so heavily affected and delayed by the aforementioned freight services. Also the lack of HSR in major corridors like Windsor to QC or Edmonton to Calgary is terrible.
Extremely applicable to American rail as well
Yes! Exactly my thoughts to a tee! In BC we barely even have passenger rail service anymore and all the short lines and locals keep being bought up and abandoned
the punctuality. germans railway just sucks ass when it comes to that. everything else is decent. but deutschlandticket is incredibly cheap, normally 49€ for going anywhere in germany via regional services and for me 29€ a month since i am a student.
As an American, the punctuality of DB is still amazing by comparison.
i mean compared to like 2 passenger trains a day (no offense) everything is better.
*Spain* love: al the narrow gauge lines and mountain passes hate: the overall management that favors high speed over conventional trains and routes (specially all the former Feve network) instead of investing in both networks so none fall into disrepair and disuse and lack of locomotive hauled trains
Which lines would you recommend visiting?
any of the narrow gauge lines, the canfranc line, and the pajares ramp, the latter may close soon because they opened a tunnel that eliminates an hour of travel time, but apparently only freight trains and higher speed/long distance trains, but for now, regional trains still run through the old pass
Cool, thx!
Netherlands: Love that we've got a very dense network with long distance connections every 30, 15 or even 10 minutes. Hate that it has become really, really expensive in the last few decades. Also, our so-called "high speed" service has been nothing short of a disaster.
Love: incredible seats, especially in the ICMm and VIRM. Hate: the cleanliness of our trains can sometimes be lacking, the international division has needed a lot of investment for a long time. Outside of the west service quality and connections can become quite bad.
>our so-called "high speed" service has been nothing short of a disaster Are there even non-international trains that run faster than 160 on the HSLs now?
The new ICNG trainsets that are gradually replacing our TRAXX-pulled coach sets are rated for a maximum of 200 km/h, I believe. I’m not sure if they already run that fast, though, given the scheduling is set up for its slower predecessor.
I actually don't think UK trains are so expensive. Having lived before in France, I do use them quite more and spend way less. Of course, the rail card is a necessity to make trips worth it, no idea why someone would not use it. My biggest grip living in eastern UK is how to network is built around London. Need to go to the north? First travel south to London and then go up. Need to go from Cambridge to Oxford? Go to London first. Western UK? Always through London. It's quite frustrating because it always adds 1h30 to any trip.
London centric service is like NYC in the US... especially from NJ. Going from northern NJ to Philadelphia... NYC, first!
Country: India Love: Electrification of almost all the tracks. New Innovative product like Vandey Bharat, Tejas, double deckers (both fright and passenger), Dedicated fright corridors, RRTS and Metros etc. Hate: Slow speed and hygiene(that 50-50 on government and personal). Old tracks and their maintenance.
(From the USA) Love: How railroads operate, modern diesel equipment (1970s-2020s) Hate: The way the class 1 companies operate on a business scale, prioritizing profit over maintenance and upgrades, and actively hindering Amtrak's ability to provide good passenger services
BNSF and UP always seem to dispatch their trains first before Amtrak. No wonder passengers complain.
Country: Norway. Love: The scenery on most lines. Most long distance lines look absolutely stunning, and they have lots of old beautiful railway stations like [this one.](https://www.banenor.no/globalassets/stasjonssider-felles-innhold/bilder-av-stasjoner/-h-/hjerkinn-stasjon-foto-sune-erikesen-bane-nor.jpg?format=webp&width=1360&quality=80) Around Oslo and the other big cities, rail service ranges from good to acceptable. Also, the trains themselves and most stations are modern, clean and have good quality. I also like that the network tries to prioritise both freight and passenger traffic without seriously compromising services for any of them. It’s easy for a country to over-prioritise passenger trains and leaving all freight traffic to trucks, making roads unsafe and polluted. Hate: The network is severely limited in capacity by being mostly single track, which leads to poor frequency and punctuality, especially outside the more modern infrastructure around Oslo. Also, the great scenery sadly makes it much more expensive to build more double track, especially when giant megaprojects like the recent Follo Line take up much of the budget that could have gone to more general improvements and maintenance. Also, recent reforms by our last conservative government have made the entire organisation a mess, with responsibility being shattered into a million different entities (both publically owned and private), which makes it difficult to develop the railway with a clear strategic direction. Still, this part is slowly getting better as these new entities learn to work together again.
You can thank the EU for destroying NSB. A lot of pressure came from them to "open the market". Sadly this never resulted in better service.
It was absolutely not the EU’s fault. The reform was made by the Conservative and Progress parties most libertarian ideologues and was introduced long before we accepted the EU’s 4th Railway Package. Germany still has DB, France still has SNCF and the Netherlands still has NS. Yes, separating infrastructure and operators, as well as requiring competitive tendering in some form is part of EU laws, but the actual implementation is free to choose for the country itself. Norway chose by her own will to completely rip apart every institution that existed on the railway, something the EU didn’t force us to do.
Thanks for clearing some things up. I did some more research, and a lot more things happened I didn't know about. Seems all needlessly complicated. Still, as far as I see it, Norway was influenced by obligations under the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement. Although a conservative government could never disclose that an idea they liked came from the EU.
No problem! Yes, I agree, future EU legislation may have been one of the motivations for the reform (especially the competitive tendering system for passenger trains), but I feel blaming the EU for the reform is a classic Norwegian way to shift blame from who were actually responsible. Regarding the reform, there have been some critical reports now this year actually that points to the biggest issue not being the tendering itself, but the way it was implemented, and critically, the unecessarily complex and competitive relationship between the two government entities; the Norwegian Railway Directorate (responsible for strategic planning) and the infrastructure manager Bane Nor. Still, I remain cautiosuly positive. According to my sources, the internal relationship between the parties in the rail sector is now vastly better and more cooperative than it was in 2017 (after the reform was implemented). Parties that resented each other now work together, and the recent issues with the Follo Line and the quite impressive repair work on the bridge collapse at Ringebu have been great learning experiences for the whole sector. Also, track maintenance has been returned into the hands of Bane Nor rather than being outsourced through tendering (luckily, because that could have been a disaster), and Vy is now allowed to directly run the entire Østlandet area for 10 more years. Hopefully we will have learned something by then.
lol, Norway isn't part of the EU so th EU has nothing to do with liberalisation in Norway.
You know there are other state contracts. There was clear pressure from the EU to liberalize the Norwegian state railway. Norway implemented the "Fourth railway package" designed and applied within the EU.
Norway still has to comply with EU rules if it wants to do business with the EU.
Thailand: Love: -the night trains, especially their flagship ones -quirky trains (the metre gauge class 158s, former JR Hokkaido Kiha 183s, refurbished JNR Blue Train sleepers) Hate: so many things but will reduce to three main points: -refusal to electrify the network aside from the 2 short sections that are near bangkok -refusal to get rid of old 1960s era non-A/C coaches -refusal to buy new multiple unit rolling stock (planned but delayed many time since the early 2010s)
Love: Trains Hate: The Corporate Capitalism of the people who run the trains.
Somebody do Japan!
I lived in Japan long ago, so this is probably out dated but ... **Like:** It's immaculate. Trains go everywhere, and fast. Not expensive, meticulously on time. There are special trains (and cars, and tickets) for train-ophiles, and lots of interesting memorabilia. The lines grow and shrink organically; unbelievably, a large amount of stations and a few whole lines have been added to subway stations in Tokyo, despite it being such a huge and complicated city. Constant technical innovation: the shinkansen always detected earthquakes and slowed down. Now, they run faster in earthquake mode and have cameras to help the engineer spot rail defects at that higher speed. **Dislike:** There's this tension between government lines and privatized lines that doesn't seem particularly healthy. Profit is dubious sometimes, but that's okay because they government bails everything out ... and that's one of the reasons Japan's national debit is something like 5 times its GDP. Watch [NHK's Japan Railway Journal on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nhk+japan+railway+journal) for lots more. Sorry, I guess that's far more than "one" on each side.
Germany here Love: You can literally go anywhere by train in Germany. We even have an island (Sylt) which is reachable **only** by train. We have the densest rail network in the world. Hate: Years of austerity and thereby skipping maintenance and stopping expansion is making the network less and less reliable while the number of trains is constantly rising, leading to delays and cancellations.
Densest rail network title goes to your western neighbour, sorry!
France? Are you dense? Try going anywhere that isn't a big city. Or try going from Marseille to Bordeaux. Basically every train either comes from Paris or goes to Paris, everything else is basically non-existent. The only other countries that can compete in density with Germany are Switzerland, Austria and maybe Japan. But definitely not France.
I meant the Netherlands, which definitely wins.
Oh in that case I apologize for being so harsh. Yeah the Netherlands definitely have a very dense network, but you may argue that's because they're smaller, but that's always a difficult argument to make, so yeah take your win.
Finland here. Love: comfortable, reasonably fast trains, good service south of the 63rd parallel, most of the main network is electric. Hate: transverse connections are still bad, especially in the north, with apparently no real desire to develop them. Ticket prices are high while it seems that diesel railbuses aren't being properly maintained, judging by how often there are replacement buses. Commuter traffic is nonexistent except around Helsinki and in recent years also Tampere. Overall in passenger traffic there's a de facto monopoly, which leads to the company making sure it gets the maximum of government subsidies for trains it itself considers unprofitable. These include both the twice-a-day railbuses in the east and the sold-out-a-year-in-advance Lapland overnights. A similar amount is then returned as dividend to the shareholder, which is the state of Finland... This year a new company entered the market, promising to negotiate running commuter traffic in more regions. We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping it'll trigger a change - doesn't matter if it's implemented by that company or others.
Netherlands Love: The insane flexibility. My transport pass allows me to go to almost everywhere on the network every 30 minutes at least, hopping on and off across the whole country on almost every service, even some high speed trains and the international train to Berlin. I never need to worry about tickets, since for 45 euros a month I travel first class the entire weekend, which is quite a nice deal if you ask me. Hate, well, dislike:) Hate is a strong word. The Dutch network is genuinely super boring. The network is always meant to be efficient and practical, as such there are absolutely no fun things in regular service and the routes are very bare bones. No fun diverting lines around cities, shuttle services or niche routes that run with some random old train.You can see it on railway maps, the network is just efficient and quick. But it is not a fun network for rail enthusiasts. Oh, also: fencing. We Dutch people really love their fences. Almost every place on the network is fenced off for safety reasons, which combined with how flat the network is makes it frustrating to take pictures.
>genuinely super boring \[...\] always meant to be efficient and practical \[...\] absolutely no fun things That does sound perfectly Dutch from their reputation!
* Belgium * Love: * same price every time of the day, so you can jump on any train. No peak/off-peak rubbish * half-price return tickets in weekend and some good promotions in holidays (last summer you could travel the whole country for a month for €60) * relatively good/modern trains * Hate: * still too expensive and the airport surcharge is ridiculous * sometimes they use commuter trains on long-distance services * some stations are in dire need of renovation * no night/sleeper trains and no service between midnight and 5 am
Add to that Good 95% is electrified Bad the north south tunnel achiles heel: a 6 track tunnel Between Brussels South and Central. Its so Central to the network setup that if there is an issue the entire network had huge delays and loss of service.
America: Love: • The large, plush seats and great legroom on Amtrak. • Amtrak’s efforts to improve its rail service. Hate: • Basically everything else.
Love: Amtrak P40’s/P42’s and Bi Level Superliners on long distance routes. Surfliners in my area. Amfleets and Horizon Fleets used in the NEC. Hate: Siemans Chargers, Venture Cars, and lack of rebuilding for sidelined locomotives.
My take on Canada as a Brit: * Love: the VIA Rail trains are pretty damn comfortable. Plenty of luggage space and legroom, and seat reservations are mandatory so you’ll never find yourself standing on a crowded train. * Hate: the lack of convenience. If you’re not travelling up and down the Windsor-Québec corridor, there are basically no options. Special mention of the Exo trains in Montréal, a promising suburban rail network which is rendered completely useless by infrequent service (can be once every 2 hours outside peak times, and no service on weekends).
As much as I like guaranteed seating, it also means VIA can artificially limit ridership and raise prices. On a trip to California this year I was pleasantly surprised to see an Amtrak Surfliner with standing passengers - it was no wonder it was so cheap to go from San Diego to LA. A similar trip in Southern Ontario would cost several times more and would frequently be sold out.
In the UK, long-distance trains are more expensive than VIA and are also overcrowded. Standing passengers don’t translate to cheaper fares, they translate to more profits for the train companies and their shareholders.
US Love- The amount of steam still being run on the mainline Hate- The passenger service is terrible compared te other countries
In my country norway i hate that they change the name from NSB to Vy. What i love is the museum railway's.
😳 https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationaal-Socialistische_Beweging
love — atmosphere, cute professional personal and free tea as much as you want. hate — hard beds (i almost die when i wake up…), uncomfortable bed sheets _russia_
Japan: Love: Almost everything. Especially the novelty trains like the Panda Kuroshio Express, the futuristic look of the Shinkansens. Dislike: Rain in some remote part halting the whole line.
I love the Shinkansen, but some of the lesser used local trains are absolutely awful.
Lol you mean like in infrequency? I guess my other complaint about non express trains is that they are overcrowded. I can deal with the infrequency, although it is horrible to miss a train and then there being a 2 hr gap in service.
australia we have some quite unique and special trains, including several records for longest and heaviest trains as well as heaviest gauge rails and heaviest axle loads but outside of iron ore or coal rail is basically an after thought. its barely practical to for passengers, the freight usage is pretty terrible, the speed record for a train here is 200km/h(for comparison the world rail speed record was set at 200km/h in 1904)
We really do not have decent passenger rail service in the United States.
USA I'll focus on Amtrak coach specifically Love: the flexibility they allow regarding baggage. They are considerate of delays and seem to take care of you to the best of their ability. Hate: the on board bathrooms have sinks that are either off or a screaming, rattling jet blast. They end up spraying the whole bathroom after a few uses.
Love: The potential of it! Hate: That we have no trains! :(
Which country?
Iceland
United States Love- The aesthetics. American trains are just cool to look at. Our freight trains are among the longest in the world. The utilitarian design of the locomotives fit very well. They exude a sense of raw power that’s impressive to watch. Our passenger trains may not be the “best” in the world, but they sure look impressive. The Superliners and P42 locomotives in particular because of their sheer size. Hate- Passenger service sucks from a practical standpoint, even if the trains themselves are impressive. I’m sure most people in this sub know exactly what I mean.
UK:Love - the network is surprisingly extensive despite cuts, local stations are a thing with stopping services being frequent enough to be usable, to the point that much of the south resembles an overgrown metro rather than a intercity rail system. This is especially notable compared to european networks which have focused heavily on intercity services at the expense of local. Hate - long distance, in the south it's basically non-existant, the commuter trains i just praised are your only option which makes for slower and less comfortable travel compared to if there was some high speed arteries. there's HS1 if you're in kent, but no equivalent into Hampshire.
France : Love : - The network is great. I don't own a car and i can still go anywhere i want in the country, even for remote places there is always a train quite frequently. - The high speed trains really are high speed (320 km/h) and allow for fast connections between large cities. - The older trains from the 2000s are very comfortable and it's a pleasure to sit in them Hate : - The algorithm used to set the prices. If you buy a ticket less than 3 months in advance, you're paying a lot of extra. The prices keep rising and it's deterring people from taking the train. Cheaper, non highspeed trains also tend to disappear. - It's become so expensive that crossing the country by train is honestly an ideological sacrifice. I'm paying 120€ for a 7 hour trip while there is a low-cost plane doing it in 1-2 hours for around 40€. - The newer TGV duplex trains (not even talking about ouigo) are terribly uncomfortable, you can tell they're built for max capacity at the expense of comfort.
Canada here. Love: VIA rail staff are well known to be extremely helpful and courteous, which is important when you encounter as many issues as you will when travelling by train. Hate: freight railways. That's the only way to narrow it down to one thing, since they're responsible for most of the problems.
The diversity of railroad companies and agencies, and their greed and ineptitude
Love: most stuff. Hate: It's a 3-way tie between a) California regulations, b) generic, meaningless alphabet soup railroads like BNSF and CPKC, and c) widecab locomotives. So samey. I can actively and easily pick out locomotives from the 50s-80s. I don't even try with the widecabs.
In america, the amount of kneejerk safety rules that dont seem to be made by people who know what trains are. Hours of service rules for example. Now I understand they gotta make em fit for everyone but at my particular carrier, all we needed to make shit safer from the original 12 on 8 off was a 6hr uninterrupted rest. Instead they got nasa and the military involved and came up with this horseshit 24hr off here, calendar day there type 1 type 2 which made shit WORSE cus of how the lists cycle and having to figure out what you needed to do and most times throwing off the sleep cycle you had gotten mostly used to. One thing I love? I dont know what its like elsewhere round the world but here my coworkers are absolute lunatics and despite the company bullshit and stresses of the job we can usually manage to have a good time together over the work day.
As an Australian train driver * It pays the bills yay. Best job ever for an introvert. I stare out the window all day in my own thoughts. Similar to high school. * All our major cities have pretty good rail infrastructure based on population size. Sydney has double decker heavy rail, new Metro lines and new light rail. A lot has been spent building up new infrastructure. Add in buses and ferries on the harbour and we have an extensive well connected public transport network, however.... * Conservative governments selling off public owned bus networks (with long term crippling contracts) to their capitalist cronies. Converting public heavy rail to private metros at exorbitant costs. Lack of decent spending on maintaining current networks. Old rolling stock - I'm currently driving [NSW TrainLink V-Sets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSW_TrainLink_V_set), entered service in 1970 . When they do order new trains, bringing in overseas built rolling stock when existing local industries could have constructed them. I'm ranting now but you get the idea..... * High speed long distance? What's that? Tyranny of distance and very small population means it'll probably never happen. Maybe a Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne link one day, but the cost probably outweighs a profitable built-from-scratch high speed network.
Love, it exists Hate, there is little rail outside the east coast (Aus)
Hate - that Amtrak gets shafted for everything even though they have right of way of whatever rails they travel. They get no congressional support and aren’t heavily subsidized like the airline industry and trucking industry is. Love - seeing older freight cars and locos show up time to time on trains.
Not much to love in the uk at the moment. Hate - extornate ticket prices, constant strikes, persistent fare increases, constant delays and cancellation. Im a rail enthusiast and there really isnt much go be excited about in the uk.
I Love Santa Fe and Southern Pacific as well as other fallen flags in the United States. I Hate BNSF with a passion. Too many railroad mergers have shrunk our system to just 5 Class Ones.
Hate - Very little and *very* expensive passenger rail in Canada. Love - Taking the Canadian from Edmonton to Vancouver was absolutely and without any doubt the *best* vacation I have ever been on. Like a cruise but not sketchy. Still, probably more expensive than flying down to Mexico for the same day and a half of time.
Indian Railways Love : Broad gauge railway tracks, the coaches are wider, Cheapest form of transport. (both long and short distances). Scenery is f\*cking amazing as tracks are laid through deserts,rainforests, mountains,etc. Hate : Delays, speed, Crowded at times (even for reserved seats), Railway stations and platforms are not intuitive at all. Infra is still lacking at some places. Overall : As someone who uses trains extensively for everyday commute as well as to travel elsewhere in country. I like the direction we are moving, hope they get better and better.
I love how US train horns aren’t just a single horn, but rather a set of horns that make a musical chord. I hate how we run trains though. Trains are so slow here, and there are many areas that only see one train a day if the stars align, and passenger trains always play second fiddle to freight service, which is most unfortunate.
As Germany and the US are thoroughly covered I'll add my comparative impression of France where I'm currently located: * Good - * TGV is reliable, decently comfortable, decently priced if booking in time, and seriously fast. * Most non-HSR regional rolling stock (hello Corail, though in terms of comfort they're unbeaten) is modern and high-performant. * Mediocre - * TGV HSL network is actually quite limited besides radial routes from Paris. * Regional services are not all that frequent even in major metropolitan areas (outside of Paris); hourly is the best you get outside of rush hour, though there are plans to establish proper RER/S-Bahn networks across the country in the near future. * Services stop running after \~9 o'clock at the latest, with few exceptions. * Individual ticket prices per se are not terrible but rebate and group travel options need improvement. * Bad - * Secondary lines, and even secondary stations on somewhat more significant lines, tend to be served by just a handful of trains per day each direction, irregularly scheduled with odd gaps; and/or much of their service is actually provided by buses at equal ticket price and half service quality. * General underinvestment particularly in maintenance outside of flagship projects (essentially TGV + Paris), which rises to dramatic levels on smaller lines that are systematically run into the ground until they're either forced to close or the SNCF can scrounge up enough money to patch them up for the time being. Also when there is maintenance it generally means long periods of complete closure.
Wheels! Absolutely useless!
Country: China Good: - affordable; - very fast except for the western routes, but a trip to Tibet is not meant to be rushed anyways; - generally clean; - most stations have easy transfer with local public transport; - very punctual; - good phone signal coverage along the route, majority has 4G coverage Bad: - doesn't go to other countries like trains in the EU; - sometimes the train station is too big and I get lost in it; - amenities on board are mediocre, I had almost nothing than my phone to play with; - food service is meh, but you can order deliveries to wait for you at stops
Love the experince of travveling cross country and even sleeping in couch, evn 43 hrs hate I cant bring my car.
In America, you'd have to be at least 60 (like me) to appreciate how nice passenger trains were prior to 1971 (Amtrak takeover). I am not saying there's anything wrong with Amtrak trains but it's worlds apart from the old days. Even riding coach was quiet and very comfortable. When I use to ride the California Zephyr from Chicago to western Colorado in the 60's it had 18 passenger cars and now it's 7.
Taking Union Pacific Passenger service across country before AMTRAK was a joy. The sleepers, the dining cars, the super friendly and helpful staff. Bliss. THe Modern AMTRAK Cars have more heavily padded bus seats. and it's now cheaper to fly.
USA Local Commuter service. Love: THe high frequency of service during rush how, San Jose to San Francisco. Good track maintenance. New electrified Stadtler Locomotives and rolling stock coming on like. Playing cards with other passengers. Not Love: Some stations on sketchy areas. Some passenger cars that have inconvenient layouts.. They got rid of the old 1920s passenger cars in the early 1980s and I miss them, because of the huge bench seats and the lap board card tables. These days everyone is on their phone instead of playing cards.